In his final moments as he slowly succumbed to blood loss, Nicholas Billingham begged his killer: “Why?”
The 42-year-old had been stabbed in the neck by his partner of 17 years Fiona Beal, a primary school teacher, after she lured him to bed armed with a knife and a chisel after promising sex after a bath.
Prosecutors believe the builder and devoted Manchester United fan was cable-tied and wearing an eye mask as he bled to death after Beal severed his jugular vein in a single strike.
Afterwards, the Year 6 teacher spent ten days carefully covering her tracks as she told friends and family they were isolating after testing positive for Covid-19.
She wrapped Mr Billingham, who was 5ft 11 and weighed at least 14 stone, in plastic and dragged him downstairs - destroying the bannisters - before burying him the garden of their Northampton home.
The blood spatter in their bedroom was painted over and their furniture re-arranged to obscure the view of his burial site in the side return of their three-bedroom terraced house - which was not overlooked by neighbours while next door was empty for renovations.
He lay undiscovered in the make-shift grave of plastic sheeting, badly mixed-concrete, breeze blocks and compost for more than four months while Beal, 50, returned to teaching as if “nothing had happened”, telling others Mr Billingham had left her for another woman.
On Thursday, Beal kept her head lowered as she was jailed for life with a minimum term of 20 years for his murder. Less time served on remand, it will be 17 years and 294 days until she can be considered for parole.
The teacher admitted her crime part way through a retrial at London’s Old Bailey last month after a previous trial at Northampton Crown Court collapsed on its 64th day.
She had initially pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter by reason of a loss of control, but denied murdering Mr Billingham between October 30 and November 10 2021.
In mitigation, Andrew Wheeler KC said Beal had suffered traumatic amnesia following the incident and expressed remorse in her journal entries.
An extract read to the court said: “I am eternally sorry. I am sorry for a lot. I am sorry I didn’t leave. I am sorry I let him rip my self-esteem and self-worth apart.
“I am sorry I let him control me. I am sorry I took him back. I am sorry I am weak. I am sorry for what I did.”
He cited evidence from one medical expert who concluded Beal was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as result of her experiences in the relationship with Mr Billingham, whose behaviour was likely to be considered coercive and controlling.
The court heard Beal claimed he would make belittling comments – calling her “old, washed up and fat” – and was obsessive about the standard of cleaning and food she prepared.
Sentencing, Judge Mark Lucraft KC said Beal had sent numerous messages to cover up her crime as she concealed his body in a “home-made tomb in the garden”.
“But the deceit goes on well after that ten-day period and you are then peddling the story of Nick having left you for someone else,” he said.
He said having a Christmas drink with Mr Billingham’s mother while her son’s body was buried in the garden was a “truly callous act” as she told “lie after lie” about his whereabouts.
The court previously heard how Beal documented the “carefully planned domestic execution” in sinister journal entries discovered by police after her mental health started to unravel.
The journal entries, written in a log cabin in Cumbria in March 2022 before she made an attempt on her own life, said: “I encouraged the bath with the incentive of sex afterwards. While he was in the bath I kept the knife in my dressing gown pocket and then I had it in the drawer next to the bed.
“I brought a chisel, bin bag and cable ties up too. I got him to wear an eye mask.”
She went on: “My last words to him when he asked why was that he was not going to do to (another female) what he had done to me.”
Another entry detailed her planning for the attack, writing: “It was harder than I thought it would be. Hiding a body was bad. Moving a body is much more difficult than it looks on TV.”
The journals triggered a police investigation, which soon established that Mr Billingham had not been seen or spoken to by telephone since the afternoon of November 1 2021, the court heard.
Beal - who regularly smoked cannabis and had a dark alter ego she referred to as ‘Tulip 22’ - was arrested in March 2022 after police discovered his body “unceremoniously entombed” in the garden.
Prosecutor Hugh Davies KC said her actions were the “controlled execution” and cover-up of the murder of a partner she no longer liked and probably suspected of having an affair.
Mr Davies added: “Whether as her ruthless alter ego Tulip 22 or otherwise and whether or not having spent the day smoking cannabis, she had planned to and had killed him in a ruthless manner.”
Mr Billingham’s mother Yvonne Valentine clutched a picture of her son outside court as the family said they could “sleep safe” knowing Beal was locked up.
“She has demonstrated extraordinary evil,” she said in statement read by an officer from Northamptonshire Police.
“Behind her façade as a kindly schoolteacher, she was secretly planning the cold-blooded killing of Nick.
“Once the deed was done, she went to great lengths to conceal his body, dumping him in an impromptu grave, like rubbish, before carrying on with her life as if nothing had happened.”
